Diet of Worms

The Diet of Worms was an Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire held in the Imperial city of Worms (in what is now the Rhineland-Palatinate state of western Germany) from 28 January to 26 May 1521. At the diet, Protestant leader Martin Luther refused to recant his 95 theses, and he famously said, "Here I stand, I can do no other...God help me." Emperor Charles V of Germany responded by outlawing Lutheranism, and Luther was spirited away to Wartburg from his prison by Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, preventing the Emperor from punishing him.